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CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU, September 12, 2003: When 14-year-old Ram Abhinav, an eighth-grade student, committed suicide four months ago after he was allegedly beaten by his mathematics teacher, the Human Rights Commission stepped in to try and come up with a solution about corporal punishment in schools. Since Ram’s incident the commission has received at least ten reports of similar cases. However experts say that the real problem is with an outdated Tamil Nadu education law that was put into effect over a hundred years ago. This law allows corporal punishment. Until the law is changed, there is very little that the Human Rights Commission can do to rectify the problem. K. Sivanandan, Headmaster of Thiru Vi Ka School says, “The teacher should be controlled by the law and when there is no provision, we cannot do that.” The state government appointed a committee in July of 2003 to recommend reforming existing rules. S. Pramasivan, Director, School Education says, “The government is processing the report and soon, it will issue instructions to the school education department on the future plan of action.” In the meantime, corporal punishment continues in the state where the education rules are archaic.